Item 2. PROPERTIES

We have production and distribution operations in the following states: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin. We also have sales offices throughout the United States. Additionally, we have sales offices, facilities or participate in joint venture operations in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, China, the Dominican Republic, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the Philippines, Russia, South Korea, Spain, Taiwan, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and Venezuela.

Chicken: Chicken processing plants include various phases of slaughtering, dressing, cutting, packaging, deboning and further-processing. We also have 29 animal nutrition operations, nine of which are associated with the Chicken rendering plants, 19 within various Chicken processing facilities and one pet treats plant. The blending mills, feed mills and broiler hatcheries have sufficient capacity to meet the needs of the chicken growout operations.

Beef: Beef plants include various phases of slaughtering live cattle and fabricating beef products. We also have various plants which have rendering operations along with tanneries and hide treatment operations. The Beef segment includes three case-ready operations that share facilities with the Pork segment. One of the beef facilities contains a tallow refinery.

Pork: Pork plants include various phases of slaughtering live hogs and fabricating pork products and allied products. The Pork segment includes three case-ready operations that share facilities with the Beef segment.

Prepared Foods: Prepared Foods plants process fresh and frozen chicken, turkey, beef, pork and other raw materials into pizza toppings, branded and processed meats, desserts, appetizers, prepared meals, ethnic foods, soups, sauces, side dishes, pizza crusts, flour and corn tortilla products and meat dishes.

In addition, our foreign chicken production operations in China and India include four processing plants, two rendering plants, three feed mills and five broiler hatcheries. The processing plants include various phases of slaughtering, dressing, cutting, packaging, deboning and further-processing chicken. The feed mills and broiler hatcheries generally have sufficient capacity to meet the needs of the foreign chicken growout operations.

We believe our present facilities are generally adequate and suitable for our current purposes; however, seasonal fluctuations in inventories and production may occur as a reaction to market demands for certain products. We regularly engage in construction and other capital improvement projects intended to expand capacity and improve the efficiency of our processing and support facilities. We also consider the efficiencies of our operations and may from time to time consider changing the number or type of plants we operate to align with our capacity needs.